Social Welfare Students Focus on Homeless
Posted on October 21, 2008

Twenty-four first-year Master of Social Welfare (MSW) students at the UCLA School of Public Affairs spent 20 weeks researching and studying the stigmatization of the homeless in Los Angeles communities and helped to formulate core messages in a public education campaign.

“It grew out of a classroom, evolved into a collaboration, and resulted in a video,” said Toby Hur, School of Public Affairs field faculty member.

Jennifer Ma-Pham (MSW ’07), who was then a legislative deputy for Los Angeles Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, approached Hur about the project idea for the Social Welfare course “Theory of Social Work Practice in Organizations, Communities and Policy Settings,” in which all first-year MSW students immerse themselves in community engagement projects.

The centerpiece of the campaign was a 19-minute educational video produced by LA Cityview 35. The video may be viewed on UCLA’s YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/UCLA . The video also may be seen on Facebook at: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14559243116&ref=mf

“This project was unique for LA Cityview 35 in a few areas. First, we were working to create content in partnership with a highly-regarded national program at UCLA, so it was clear that the content was going to be first rate and hit the mark,” said LA Cityview 35 station manager Tony Ighani.

The partnership with Councilmember Rosendahl’s office identified the following goals to develop a comprehensive public education campaign:

1. Challenge stereotypical perceptions of the homeless population

2. Educated the public on the obstacles of ‘overcoming’ homelessness

3. Provide the public with the tools as to how they can contribute to this cause

“People often turn to marketing or advertising professionals to develop public education compaigns. I felt that working with UCLA Master of Social Welfare (MSW) students would provide a level of insight to the problem that is unique to social workers, said Councilman Rosendahl. “The coordinators included a UCLA professor that served as a liaison with Skid Row service agencies for many years and my legislative deputy who was a MSW that worked on homelessness for my district,” he said, adding, “I felt as though these factors would contribute to the development of a comprehensive campaign in my district – one that would move the public to action through compassion.

The project, which was completed over two academic quarters, received valuable guidance from UCLA Urban Planning professor Lois Takahashi in working on issues of locational conflict, said Hur.

Class of 2009 MSW students Dawn Robertson and Shannon Willis also shot four promotional videos (edited by classmate Jesse Sandler) primarily for web marketing and created a group on Facebook called End Homelessness – Know, Believe, Act for sustained exposure and education of the public.

See Video on UCLA YouTube Channel:

End Homelessness Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbS-VrhE09o

End Homelessness Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOxMXJIGYcE